Playing with Rods and Reels at the Beach

[TrackerPro16]

Since we are planning on retiring on the Washington Coast in a few years I thought I should get used to fishing salt... I have never fished saltwater, either off the beach or in a boat, though I have been out on the ocean in a smaller boat. It made me feel miniature!
I am primarily interested in beach fishing, not off of a jetty. That because I am old, so climbing around on and falling on big rocks is not as appealing to me as when they would have been when I was younger...
We had planned a trip to the beach so after watching a gazillion video's and reading a dictionary's worth of info I took my best three candidates for surf fishing. While I took enough stuff to actually fish, I first wanted to check casting distance to see if any of it would work well enough to get out to where the fish would be without going too far into the surf.
The beach fishing vids are convincing that you can catch fish in just a few feet of water so at this point I am not interested in building a 'bait cannon', though I have experience building spud cannons, to fish 600 feet plus out.
The rods I took were 9', 9' 6", and 10', in light, medium light, and medium in strength. I chose a 1 ounce weight to start off with. Yes, it was too heavy for the light rod. I know that. This was a test, remember?
I took two matched spinning reels that had two different braids on them in 20 lb and one casting reel with the same braid as one of the spinning reels. I took a 100' tape measure (that got full of sand...) as one of the braids is not color marked in 25' sections. I have checked the color marked ones and they are accurate.
After casting, swapping reels around and measuring I found the reel made less difference than the pole did. I adjusted the casting reel from 'proper' for the weight to 'no drag whatsoever' and it only made a slight difference in distance. Caused me a minor birds nest at one point (I have been spoiled by magnetic drag...) but I was interested to note the reel did not affect the effect that much. I am talking distance here...
My longest cast was around 300' with the medium strength 10' pole and the casting reel. I swapped to the matching braid spinning reel and got to 275' before the reel spooled out. I am sure the distance would have been the same with more line as it was slowing considerably before spooling.
It was fun using my new found knowledge on 'reading the beach' while looking to see 'if' I was going to fish, where I would try first. I have chest waders but after watching folks get knocked down (been there, done that, but without waders on) by random big waves I am thinking I would rather not go out too far into the surf if I don't have to.
I have another spinning reel with the 'long spool' I will load up and try the next tme we go. I will 'probably' actually fish the next time after checking the casting distance...

[dutchman2858]

Interesting research, Tracker. I'll be following this since at one time or another I've entertained the thought of, or experimented with, the concept of surf casting/fishing. From my limited experience I'd agree that with the quality of all major brands of reels nowadays the rod length/action will have the biggest effect on casting distance. Europe and Australia have some of the best dedicated distance casting websites: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic ... bRbXdziR9M is one example.

Good luck.

[TrackerPro16]

Went down by Grayland on business today and took the newly spooled 'long spool' Shimano reel along with the longest casting (10') rod. The wind before was going from South to North and I cast right down the beach with the wind. This time the wind was West to East. Not sure if that was the reason but the best I could get was about 225'. I didn't do a lot of casting because of all the people showing up for the clam dig so I will probably try again at another time. I truly expected it to REALLY zing off so was a little disappointed... It is spooled with the same braid the others were. If I had more time I would have swapped the other reel (I took it with me) and played some more.
The number of people showing up to dig clams was amazing! I walked down and watched and it seemed everyone was getting them. Had a guy give me some tips and demonstrated getting one for me. I have never dug for them so it was interesting to see. I have a bunch of friends that dig for clams, I just have never done it.
On the surf stuff, Austrailia has a CRAZY amount of vids and take it VERY seriously. The casting competitions are interesting to watch. They are casting 500' plus! Serious equipment too!